Holocaust Survivor shares life story

By Erin McGuinness | Published by April 5, 2019

Kean University students and community members gathered in the Miron Student Center Little Theatre April 4 to listen to the testimony of a Holocaust survivor.

Fred Heyman was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. He lived through twelve years of The Nazi’s power, he said.

Heyman took audience members on the journey of his life, recalling having to transfer to a Jewish school after being bullied for his religion, watching his school and congregation set ablaze, surviving bombings and coping with his lack of freedom. Jewish Germans were no longer considered citizens, and Heyman was not permitted to do the things other children could, such as ride a bike. His family was able to avoid being captured and sent to prison camps, hiding in plain sight under the cover of a large city. The Holocaust ended just before his sixteenth birthday.

Now, Heyman chooses to be the opposite of a bystander, he said. He encouraged the crowd to become upstanders, to see the things going on in our world today and attempt to make a difference.

“That’s what I am doing here today,” he said. “We have got to change the world. I tell my kids that all the time, and it starts with a handshake.”

The lecture was one event of many coordinated by Dr. Adara Goldberg, Director of the Holocaust Resource Center, and Sarah Coykendall, managing assistant director, for Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Month.

Now almost 90 years old, Heyman said he is thankful people are still listening to his story.

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